The international real estate specialist KanAm Grund Group, based in Frankfurt, has completed the sale of the office building located at 158-160 Pau Claris Street in Barcelona, headquarters of the Ministry of Justice of the Generalitat. The operation would have closed between 30 and 35 million euros, according to El Periódico de España. The off-market transaction has been advised by Savills, although KPMG and the Pérez-Llorca firm have also participated.
The asset, with an area of 6,180 sqm in the heart of Barcelona, was acquired by the KanAm Grund Group as part of of the Pentagon portfolio, a conglomerate of office buildings leased from the Generalitat that KanAm bought from Axa in 2019 and 2021. In 2013, the real estate division of the insurer acquired 13 properties from the Generalitat of Catalonia for 172 million.
In an institutional declaration made after the closing of the transaction by the Minister of the Presidency and spokesman for the Government, Francesc Homs, he pointed out that this operation was a response to the emergency situation that the Administration was experiencing after the bursting of the real estate bubble. The transaction was cataloged as a sale & leaseback, in which the Administration remained leased for the next 20 years, paying annual rents amounting to 16.26 million euros.
After six years, Axa opened the door to transfer the portfolio and closed the sale of 8 properties to KanAm for approximately 100 million. In 2021, the German fund bought the five remaining buildings for 280 million.
In total, KanAm paid 380 million euros for a portfolio that, in 2013, Axa bought for 172. Now, three years after the acquisition of the first lot and one year after the second lot, the German fund has begun to undo positions in the Catalan capital.
Hipólito Sánchez, executive director of offices at Savills, has pointed out that "assets with long-term contracts with public administrations are perceived as a refuge investment in times of uncertainty and, with all certainty, we will see more transactions of this type in the coming months in Madrid and in Barcelona”.
